Telefónica Brasil (Vivo) has abandoned the public sale of the surplus base stations it acquired as part of its three-way takeover of Oi Móvel after receiving no proposals for the assets.

It follows a similar call made by TIM Brasil last week after it also received no interest in the surplus base stations.

Comms Update reported that Vivo informed the Conselho Administrativo de Defesa Economica, (CADE) of the situation on 14 March.

Vivo placed 2,700 base stations up for sale, which is slightly less than the 3,600 put up for sale by TIM Brasil, the latter of which struggled to sell the base stations even with a 75 percent discount available.

TIM, which inherited a total of 7,200 sites, has already switched off 500 of the base stations it inherited last year but does plan to add to the grid those sites that do not overlap, totaling an estimated 2,800 sites.

As for Oi, the struggling telco has also sold off its assets to other Brazilian telcos Telefónica and América Móvil, plus 8,000 telco towers to Digital Bridge's Highline.

The company only exited bankruptcy protection for the first time in six years in December of last year, after it filed for bankruptcy in 2016 with debts of R$65 billion (US$19bn). Brazil's regulator recently set up a working group focused on monitoring the operational and financial situation of the operator.

Earlier this week, the president of Brazilian regulator Anatel said that cash-strapped Oi cannot dispose of its stake in its fiber firm V.tal.